The program, being driven by the newly formed IBM Watson Group, aims to encourage developers to spread apps into the marketplace. IBM's Watson cognitive computing represents a new class of services, software and apps that analyze, improve by learning, and discover answers and insights to complex questions from massive amounts of disparate data.

"The power of Watson in the palm of your hand is a game-changing proposition, so we're calling on mobile developers around the world to start building cognitive computing apps infused with Watson's intelligence," said Mike Rhodin, Senior Vice President, IBM Watson Group. "Imagine a new class of apps that deliver deep insights to consumers and business users instantly -- wherever they are -- over the cloud. It's about changing the essence of decision making from 'information at your fingertips' to actual insights."

IBM encourages developers to build cognitive apps that can change the way consumers and businesses interact with data on their mobile devices. Mobile developers can take advantage of Watson's ability to understand the complexities of human language, "read" millions of pages of data in seconds and improve its own performance by learning.

Over the next three months, the global challenge invites mobile developers to share their ideas to build and develop mobile apps into prototypes. Three winners will join the Watson Ecosystem Program. The winners will work with IBM's recently launched global consulting practice, IBM Interactive Experience to receive design consulting and support from IBM experts to develop a viable commercial app.

Watson was developed in IBM's Research labs and is now being accelerated into market by the new IBM Watson Group. Since its introduction, IBM has advanced Watson from a game playing innovation into a commercial technology. Delivered from the cloud and able to power new consumer and enterprise apps, Watson is 24 times faster; smarter, with a 2,400 percent improvement in performance; and 90 percent smaller than the original system.